Motivation is also on the coach. Something that drives motivation on a team is competition. Did lucho bring players that would ensue that in the squad? No... He brought arda, gomes, denis, paco. If at least some canteranos that would give their all were there too, it'd be a boost, even if a small one. But he brought a lot of players that are not like that. Arda lazy, and the rest are not those kind of players either. And his mathieu/gomes fetish? Keep playing them despite them not deserving so may minutes... while benching others like alba. All that affect the players, in a negative way.
Also the lack of structure. he changed the 343 a bit in the match vs Juve, instead of doing what had worked before. Rakitic was the RW, ffs. And mathieu as the lcb in the 343 does not work. As he doesn't work as LB.
Sometimes motivation is on coach.
Sometimes it is on players.
Sometimes it is both.
For example, we all remember Ronaldinho past 2006.
Was any coach able to bring back motivation in him? No. Guy just lost desire and that was it.
He played football later, but that was always 50% of a former prime Ronaldinho.
Further, you also probably remember Galacticos from RM.
They were winning for some time, and then in their late era (when they were all older and when all of them won CLs and individual Ballon D Ors), they started to suck badly.
Real changed 100s of coaches in that time. No one was able to bring back the spark into Zidane, Figo, Beckham, Raul.
They won too many trophies.
Media and fans glorified them for too long and for too much (best team ever, best this, best that).
Plus, I have wrote this several times before, I think that it was Zidane who said: you can't run with the same intensity and with the same hunger in your 1st and 5th CL final.
It is not as if you don't care at all anymore, but you care way too much when you are winning it for the first time.
For example, just look the hunger in La liga from Real and Barca.
Real didn't win La liga for years and they are fully motivated.
Our guys? Well, who cares, more or less.
Again, imo, it can't be only on Lucho.
I would be willing to say: if someone is willing to bet that we will play exactly the same (unmotivated) even under a new coach (but then some people will say that I want our team to fail).
Anyway, I think that we will all see the same old Barca without motivation in the next season and things won't change with a new coach and a new system.
Things will change only when we will change half of the current oldies (Messi, Iniesta, Pique, Masch, Mathieu, Busi, Rakitic etc).
For example, we can't say for any younger guy in our team that he is not motivated.
Those guys are either good or not good enough. But they all run like crazy on every match.
Denis? Not good enough, but he is never without motivation.
Rafinha? The same.
Roberto? Always motivated.
Paco? Bad, but he tries.
Vidal? Always trying.
Digne? Trying.
Etc.
Oldies, can you say the same?
Messi? He is surely not as motivated as in 2006, 2009 or 2011.
Pique? Lol, the same.
Busi? The same.
Iniesta? Old and not motivated.
Rakitic? Less motivated than before.
Suarez? Less motivated than in 2015.
Neymar? Even he is probably less motivated than in 2015.
Guys who never won trophies will more or less always run and play like crazy.
With them, only a quality is questionable.
With older, proven guys:
1. some will play good even 2-3-4 trophies
2. some will lose motivation even after 1-2 trophies like Ronaldinho and Deco in the past
And majority of our guys won 3-4 CLs (Messi, Iniesta) and several world cups and Euros.
Anyway, Lucho will be gone soon.
We will be able to test player's motivation in 3-4 months already.
** A random line that will probably cause some fights, but ok. At the beginning of a season, Neymar replied to a Brasilian reporter on Olympic games: I have won everything I could in football (when a reporter questioned his form and motivation).
Anyway, if he really thinks that he has won everything (which he did to some extent), but that also shows the attitude of our superstars, to some extent.
I have won everything (aged 25, lol)
